Original sin in the Bible

393 · Jerome, Against Jovinianus (Adversus Iovinianum) 2.2

To Him came the prince of this world, and found nothing in Him: although He had done no sin, God made Him sin for us. But we, according to the Epistle of James, “all stumble in many things,” and “no one is pure from sin, no not if his life be but a day long.” For who will boast “that he has a clean heart? or who will be sure that he is pure from sin?” And we are held guilty after the similitude of Adam’s transgression. Hence David says, “Behold, I was shapen in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me.”

c. 400–403 · Augustine of Hippo, Answer to the Letters of Petilian, the Donatist (Contra litteras Petiliani) 2.102.232

Do you not hear the words of Scripture saying, "No one is clean from sin in Thy sight, not even the infant whose life is but of a single day upon the earth?" For whence else is it that one hastens even with infants to seek remission of their sins? Do you not hear the words of another Scripture, "In sin did my mother conceive me?"

1557 · John Calvin, Commentary on the Psalms, part 2 (Psalms 36-66) 51.5

David does not charge it upon his parents, nor trace his crime to them, but sists himself before the Divine tribunal, confesses that he was formed in sin, and that he was a transgressor ere he saw the light of this world. It was therefore a gross error in Pelagius to deny that sin was hereditary, descending in the human family by contagion.

1557 · John Calvin, Commentary on the Psalms, part 2 (Psalms 36-66) 51.5

Without entering upon such mysterious discussions, it is enough that we hold, that Adam, upon his fall, was despoiled of his original righteousness, his reason darkened, his will perverted, and that, being reduced to this state of corruption, he brought children into the world resembling himself in character. Should any object that generation is confined to bodies, and that souls can never derive anything in common from one another, I would reply, that Adam, when he was endued at his creation with the gifts of the Spirit, did not sustain a private character, but represented all mankind, who may be considered as having been endued with these gifts in his person; and from this view it necessarily follows that when he fell, we all forfeited along with him our original integrity.

1674 · John Owen, Pneumatologia, or a Discourse Concerning the Holy Spirit (Books I-V) 4.5

And when David, upon his great sin and his repentance, took in all humbling, self-abasing considerations, here he fixeth the head of them: Ps. li. 5, “Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me.” His original natural defilement was that which, in the first place, influenced him unto self-abasement. So our apostle frequently calls the saints to a remembrance of their former condition before they were purged, Eph. ii. 11–13; 1 Cor. vi. 9–11; and therewith are the minds of all true believers greatly affected and greatly humbled. When they consider what was their natural state and condition, — universally leprous and polluted, — with what remainders of it do still abide, it casts them on the earth, and causeth them to lay their mouths in the dust.

1710 · Matthew Henry, Commentary on Psalms 51.1-6

David elsewhere speaks of the admirable structure of his body (Ps. cxxxix. 14, 15); it was curiously wrought; and yet here he says it was shapen in iniquity, sin was twisted in with it; not as it came out of God's hands, but as it comes through our parents' loins. He elsewhere speaks of the piety of his mother, that she was God's handmaid, and he pleads his relation to her (Ps. cxvi. 16, lxxxvi. 16), and yet here he says she conceived him in sin; for though she was, by grace, a child of God, she was, by nature, a daughter of Eve, and not excepted from the common character. Note, It is to be sadly lamented by every one of us that we brought into the world with us a corrupt nature, wretchedly degenerated from its primitive purity and rectitude; we have from our birth the snares of sin in our bodies, the seeds of sin in our souls, and a stain of sin upon both. This is what we call original sin, because it is as ancient as our original, and because it is the original of all our actual transgressions. This is that foolishness which is bound in the heart of a child, that proneness of evil and backwardness to good which is the burden of the regenerate and the ruin of the unregenerate; it is a bent to backslide from God.

1710 · Matthew Henry, Commentary on Job 15.1-16

What is he that is born of a woman, a sinful woman, that he should be righteous? Note, 1. Righteousness is cleanness; it makes us acceptable to God and easy to ourselves, Ps. xviii. 24. 2. Man, in his fallen state, cannot pretend to be clean and righteous before God, either to acquit himself to God's justice or recommend himself to his favour. 3. He is to be adjudged unclean and unrighteous because born of a woman, from whom he derives a corrupt nature, which is both his guilt and his pollution.

1757 · Jonathan Edwards, The Great Christian Doctrine of Original Sin Defended 2.2

Our author (p. 141, 142.) represents man being born of a woman, as a periphrasis, to signify man; and that there is no design in the words to give a reason, why man is not clean and righteous. But the case is most evidently otherwise, if we may interpret the book of Job by itself. It is most plain, that man’s being born of a woman is given as a reason of his not being clean; Job xiv. 4. “Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean?” Job is speaking there expressly of man’s being born of a woman, as appears in ver. 1. And here how plain is it, that this is given as a reason of man’s not being clean!

1767 · John Gill, A Body of Doctrinal Divinity Chapter 11. Of The Of The Corruption Of Human Nature

This depravity of nature is in some passages carried up higher, even to a man’s birth; “The wicked are estranged from the womb”; that is, from God, alienated from the life of God; being under the power of a moral death, or being dead in trespasses and sins; “They go astray as soon as they be born, speaking lies” (Ps. 58:3), that is, as soon as they are capable of speaking; and the sin of lying, children are very early addicted to; and this is said, not only of such who in the event turn out very wicked, profligate and abandoned sinners, but even such as are born of religious parents, have a religious education, and become religious themselves, are “called transgressors from the womb” (Isa. 48:8), that is, as soon as capable of committing actual transgression. David carries the pollution of his nature still higher, when he says; “Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me” (Ps. 51:5), which he observes, not to extenuate, but rather to aggravate, his actual transgression he was confessing, in that he had been so early and so long sinful; and that whereas he was not ignorant of the corruption of his nature, and how prone he was to sin, that he should be no more upon his guard against it.

1834 · Albert Barnes, Notes on the Bible: Job 14.4

The sentiment is as true as it is obvious - like will beget like all over the world. The nature of the lion, the tiger, the hyaena, the serpent is propagated, and so the same thing is true of man. It is a great law, that the offspring will resemble the parentage; and as the offspring of the lion is not a lamb but a young lion; of a wolf is not a kid but a young wolf, so the offspring of man is not an angel, but is a man with the same nature, the same moral character, the same proneness to evil with the parent.

1834 · Albert Barnes, Notes on the Bible: Psalms 51.5

The fact that he was thus born only deepened his sense of his own guilt, or showed the enormity of the offence which was the regular result or outbreak of that early depravity. The points, therefore, which are established by this expression of the psalmist, so far as the language is designed to illustrate how human nature is conceived, are (1) that people are born with a propensity to sin; and (2) that this fact does not excuse us in sin, but rather tends to aggravate and deepen our guilt. The language goes no further than this in regard to the question of original sin or native depravity.

1871 · Charles Hodge, Systematic Theology, vol. 2 (Part II, Anthropology; Part III, Soteriology, chapters I-XIV) 2.8.13

What David says of himself as born in sin is confirmed by other representations of Scripture, which show that what was true of him is no less true of all mankind. Thus (Job xiv. 4), “Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean.” (xv. 14), “What is man that he should be clean? and he which is born of a woman, that he should be righteous?” Thus also our Lord says (John iii. 6), “That which is born of the flesh is flesh.” This clearly means that, That which is born of corrupt parents is itself corrupt; and is corrupt in virtue of its descent or derivation.

1872 · Charles Haddon Spurgeon, The Treasury of David, vol. 2 (Psalms 27-57) 51.1-12

Mine is a constitutional disease, rendering my very person obnoxious to thy wrath. “And in sin did my mother conceive me.” He goes back to the earliest moment of his being, not to traduce his mother, but to acknowledge the deep tap-roots of his sin. It is a wicked wresting of Scripture to deny that original sin and natural depravity are here taught. Surely men who cavil at this doctrine have need to be taught of the Holy Spirit what be the first principles of the faith. David’s mother was the Lord’s handmaid, he was born in chaste wedlock, of a good father, and he was himself “the man after God’s own heart;” and yet his nature was as fallen as that of any other son of Adam, and there only needed the occasion for the manifesting of that sad fact. In our shaping we were put out of shape, and when we were conceived our nature conceived sin.

1872 · Adam Clarke, The Treasury of David, vol. 2 (Psalms 27-57) 51.q44

Notwithstanding all that Grotius and others have said to the contrary, I believe David to speak here of what is commonly called original sin; the propensity to evil which every man brings into the world with him, and which is the fruitful source whence all transgression proceeds.

1878 · Charles G. Finney, Lectures on Systematic Theology 23

He was deeply convinced of sin, and was, as he had good reason to be, much excited, and expressed himself, as we all do in similar circumstances, in strong language. His eye, as was natural and is common in such cases, had been directed back along the pathway of life up to the days of his earliest recollection. He remembered sins among the earliest acts of his recollected life. He broke out in the language of this text to express, not the anti-scriptural and nonsensical dogma of a sinful constitution, but to affirm in his strong, poetic language, that he had been a sinner from the commencement of his moral existence, or from the earliest moment of his capability of being a sinner.

1878 · Charles G. Finney, Lectures on Systematic Theology 23

Not one.” This text is quoted in support of the position of the Presbyterian Confession of Faith, that children inherit from their parents, by natural generation, a sinful nature. Upon this text, I remark, that all that can be made of it, even if we read it without regard to the translation or the context, is, that a physically depraved parent will produce a physically depraved offspring. That this is its real meaning, is quite evident, when we look into the context. Job is treating of the frail and dying state of man, and manifestly has in the text and context his eye wholly on the physical state, and not on the moral character of man.

1901 · Charles Haddon Spurgeon, Spurgeon's Sermons, Volume 47 (1901) 2734

Now, coming to our text, I want first to speak of SOME MATTERS OF IMPOSSIBILITY IN NATURE—the bringing of clean things out of unclean ones. And the first matter of impossibility I will mention is that there should be born into this world a pure child, perfectly holy in nature, from impure parents. "Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? Not one." Whatever the newfangled teaching may say about the old-fashioned doctrine that we are shaped in iniquity, and conceived in sin, that doctrine is true! It matters not who may deny its truth, it still stands fast, for it is founded upon the rock of the Inspired Word of God.

1907 · Augustus Hopkins Strong, Systematic Theology Chapter III. Sin, Or Man's State Of Apostasy

Ps. 51:5—“Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity; And in sin did my mother conceive me”—here David is confessing, not his mother's sin, but his own sin; and he declares that this sin goes back to the very moment of his conception. Tholuck, quoted by H. B. Smith, System, 281—“David confesses that sin begins with the life of man; that not only his works, but the man himself, is guilty before God.”

1949 · Louis Berkhof, Systematic Theology 2.2.3

Several passages of Scripture teach that sin is the heritage of man from the time of his birth, and is therefore present in human nature so early that it cannot possibly be considered as the result of imitation, Ps. 51:5; Job 14:4; John 3:6. In Ephesians 2:3 Paul says of the Ephesians that they "were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest." In this passage the term "by nature" points to something inborn and original, as distinguished from what is subsequently acquired. Sin, then, is something original, in which all men participate, and which makes them guilty before God.

1548 · John Calvin, Commentary on Ephesians 2.3

Another question is, since God is the Author of nature, how comes it that no blame attaches to God, if we are lost by nature? I answer, there is a twofold nature: the one was produced by God, and the other is the corruption of it. This condemnation therefore which Paul mentions does not proceed from God, but from a depraved nature: for we are not born such as Adam was at first created, we are not “wholly a right seed, but are turned into the degenerate” (Jeremiah 2:21) offspring of a degenerate and sinful man.

1619 · Synod of Dort, The Canons of Dort 2.err.5

Who teach that all people have been received into the state of reconciliation and into the grace of the covenant, so that no one on account of original sin is liable to condemnation, or is to be condemned, but that all are free from the guilt of this sin. For this opinion conflicts with Scripture which asserts that we are by nature children of wrath.

c. 1714 · Samuel Rosewell, Commentary on Ephesians 2.1-3

We are by nature the children of wrath, even as others. The Jews were so, as well as the Gentiles; and one man is as much so as another by nature, not only by custom and imitation, but from the time when we began to exist, and by reason of our natural inclinations and appetites. All men, being naturally children of disobedience, are also by nature children of wrath: God is angry with the wicked every day.

1754 · John Wesley, Explanatory Notes on Ephesians 2.3

In the former clause, flesh denotes the whole evil nature; in the latter, the body opposed to the soul. And were by nature - That is, in our natural state. Children of wrath - Having the wrath of God abiding on us, even as the gentiles. This expression, by nature, occurs also, Gal. iv, 8; Rom. ii, 14; and thrice in the eleventh chapter. But in none of these places does it signify, by custom, or practice, or customary practice, as a late writer affirms. Nor can it mean so here. For this would make the apostle guilty of gross tautology, their customary sinning having been expressed already, in the former part of the verse. But all these passages agree in expressing what belongs to the nature of the persons spoken of.

1757 · Jonathan Edwards, The Great Christian Doctrine of Original Sin Defended 2.3.3

Another passage of the apostle, to the like purpose with that which we have been considering in the 5th of Romans, is that in Eph. ii. 3.—“And were by nature children of wrath, even as others.” This remains a plain testimony to the doctrine of original sin, as held by those who used to be called orthodox Christians, after all the pains and art used to torture and pervert it. This doctrine is here not only plainly and fully taught, but abundantly so, if we take the words with the context; where Christians are once and again represented as being, in their first state, dead in sin, and as quickened and raised up from such a state of death, in a most marvelous display of free rich grace and love, and exceeding greatness of God’s power, &c.

1834 · Albert Barnes, Notes on the Bible: Ephesians 2.3

I admit that the direct and immediate sense of the passage is that they were, when without the gospel, and before they were renewed, the children of wrath; but still the fair interpretation is, that they were born to that state, and that that condition was the regular result of their native depravity; and I do not know a more strong or positive declaration that can be made to show that people are by nature destitute of holiness, and exposed to perdition. Even as others - That is, "do not suppose that you stand alone, or that you are the worst of the species. You are indeed, by nature, the children of wrath; but not you alone.

1834 · Albert Barnes, Notes on the Bible: Ephesians 2.3

By birth, or before we were converted. By conversion and adoption they became the children of God; before that, they were all the children of wrath. This is, I think, the fair meaning of this important declaration. It does not affirm "when" they began to be such, or that they were such as soon as they were born, or that they were such before they became moral agents, or that they became such in virtue of their connection with Adam - whatever may be the truth on these points; but it affirms that before they were renewed, they were the children of wrath. So far as this text is concerned, this might have been true at their very birth; but it does not directly and certainly prove that. It proves that at no time before their conversion were they the children of God, but that their whole condition before that was one of exposure to wrath; compare Rom 2:14, Rom 2:27; 1Co 11:14; Gal 2:15. Some people are born Jews, and some pagan; some free, and some slaves; some white, and some black; some are born to poverty, and some to wealth; some are the children of kings, and some of beggars; but, whatever their rank or condition, they are born exposed to wrath, or in a situation which would render them liable to wrath.

1871 · A. R. Fausset, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on Ephesians 2.3

Not merely is it, we had our way of life fulfilling our fleshly desires, and so being children of wrath; but we were by nature originally "children of wrath," and so consequently had our way of life fulfilling our fleshly desires. "Nature," in Greek, implies that which has grown in us as the peculiarity of our being, growing with our growth, and strengthening with our strength, as distinguished from that which has been wrought on us by mere external influences: what is inherent, not acquired (Job 14:4; Ps 51:5). An incidental proof of the doctrine of original sin. children of wrath—not merely "sons," as in the Greek, "sons of disobedience" (Eph 2:2), but "children" by generation; not merely by adoption, as "sons" might be. The Greek order more emphatically marks this innate corruption: "Those who in their (very) nature are children of wrath"; Eph 2:5, "grace" is opposed to "nature" here; and salvation (implied in Eph 2:5, 8, "saved") to "wrath."

1878 · Charles G. Finney, Lectures on Systematic Theology 23

Whatever is born of the propensities, in the sense that the will yields to their control, is sinful. And, on the other hand, whatever is born of the Spirit, that is, whatever results from the agency of the Holy Spirit, in the sense that the will yields to Him, is holy. Again, Eph. ii. 3. “By nature the children of wrath, even as others.” Upon this text I remark that it cannot, consistently with natural justice, be understood to mean, that we are exposed to the wrath of God on account of our nature. It is a monstrous and blasphemous dogma, that a holy God is angry with any creature for possessing a nature with which he was sent into being without his knowledge or consent. The Bible represents God as angry with men for their wicked deeds, and not for their nature.

1907 · Augustus Hopkins Strong, Systematic Theology Chapter III. Sin, Or Man's State Of Apostasy

B. All men are declared to be by nature children of wrath (Eph. 2:3). Here “nature” signifies something inborn and original, as distinguished from that which is subsequently acquired. The text implies that: (a) Sin is a nature, in the sense of a congenital depravity of the will. (b) This nature is guilty and condemnable,—since God's wrath rests only upon that which deserves it. (c) All men participate in this nature and in this consequent guilt and condemnation.

1910 · Charles Haddon Spurgeon, Spurgeon's Sermons, Volume 56 (1910) 3198

The Apostle tells us that we "were by nature the children of wrath, even as others." "By nature," mark you, not merely by practice, but, "by nature the children of wrath" The expression is a Hebraism. When a person was doomed to die, he would be called by the Jews, "the child of death." One who was very poor would be called by them, "the child of poverty." So because we were, by nature, under the wrath of God, we are called "the children of wrath."

1554 · John Calvin, Commentary on Genesis, part 1 (chapters 1-23) 8.21

Wherefore, he declares, that in inflicting punishment upon the second world, he will so do it, as yet to preserve the external appearance of the earth, and not again to sweep away the creatures with which he has adorned it. Indeed, we ourselves may perceive such moderation to have been used, both in the public and special judgments of God, that the world yet stands in its completeness, and nature yet retains its course. Moreover, since God here declares what would be the character of men even to the end of the world, it is evident that the whole human race is under sentence of condemnation, on account of its depravity and wickedness. Nor does the sentence refer only to corrupt morals; but their iniquity is said to be an innate iniquity, from which nothing but evils can spring forth.

1710–1714 · Matthew Henry, Commentary on John 3.1-21

The case is, in short, this: though man is made to consist of body and soul, yet his spiritual part had then so much the dominion over his corporeal part that he was denominated a living soul (Gen. ii. 7), but by indulging the appetite of the flesh, in eating forbidden fruit, he prostituted the just dominion of the soul to the tyranny of sensual lust, and became no longer a living soul, but flesh: Dust thou art. The living soul became dead and inactive; thus in the day he sinned he surely died, and so he became earthly. In this degenerate state, he begat a son in his own likeness; he transmitted the human nature, which had been entirely deposited in his hands, thus corrupted and depraved; and in the same plight it is still propagated. Corruption and sin are woven into our nature; we are shapen in iniquity, which makes it necessary that the nature be changed.

c. 1714 · Simon Browne, Commentary on 1 Corinthians 15.20-34

And so, as in Adam all die, in Christ shall all be made alive; as through the sin of the first Adam all men became mortal, because all derived from him the same sinful nature, so through the merit and resurrection of Christ shall all who are made to partake of the Spirit, and the spiritual nature, revive, and become immortal. All who die die through the sin of Adam; all who are raised, in the sense of the apostle, rise through the merit and power of Christ.

1757 · Jonathan Edwards, The Great Christian Doctrine of Original Sin Defended 4.4

And whether Christ did not plainly teach Nicodemus the doctrine of original total depravity, when he came to him to know what his doctrine was, must be left to the reader to judge, from what has been already observed on John iii. 1-11. And besides, Christ in the course of his preaching took the most proper method to convince men of the corruption of their nature, and to give them an effectual and practical knowledge of it, in application to themselves in particular, by teaching and urging the holy and strict law of God, in its extent, and spirituality, and dreadful threatenings: which, above all things, tends to search the hearts of men, and to teach them their inbred exceeding depravity; not merely as a matter of speculation, but by proper conviction of conscience; which is the only knowledge of original sin, that can avail to prepare the mind for receiving Christ’s redemption; as a man’s sense of his own sickness prepares him to apply in good earnest to the physician.

1757 · Jonathan Edwards, The Great Christian Doctrine of Original Sin Defended 2.2

And as mankind are represented in Scripture, as being of a wicked heart from their youth, so in other places they are spoken of as being thus from the womb. Psal. lviii. 3. “The wicked are estranged from the womb: they go astray as soon as they be born, speaking lies.” It is observable, that the psalmist mentions this as what belongs to the wicked, as the SONS OF MEN: for, these are the preceding words; “Do ye judge uprightly, O ye sons of men? Yea, in heart ye work wickedness.” Then it follows, the wicked are estranged from the womb, &c. The next verse is, their poison is like the poison of a serpent. Serpents are poisonous as soon as they come into the world; they derive a poisonous nature by their generation.

1765 · John Wesley, Explanatory Notes on Genesis 8.21

Neither will I again smite any more every living thing - That is, it was determined that whatever ruin God might bring upon particular persons, families or countries, he would never again destroy the whole world, 'till the day when time shall be no more. But the reason of this resolve is surprising; for it seems the same with the reason given for the destruction of the world, chap. vi, 5. Because the imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth. But there is this difference: there it is said, the imagination of man's heart is evil continually, that is, his actual transgressions continually cry against him; here it is said, that it is evil from his youth or childhood; he brought it into the world with him, he was shapen and conceived in it. Now one would think it should follow, therefore that guilty race shall be wholly extinguished: No; therefore I will no more take this severe method; for he is rather to be pitied: and it is but what might be expected from such a degenerate race.

1834 · Albert Barnes, Notes on the Bible: John 3.6

Is flesh - Partakes of the nature of the parent. Compare Gen 5:3. As the parents are corrupt and sinful, so will be their descendants. See Job 14:4. And as the parents are wholly corrupt by nature, so their children will be the same. The word "flesh" here is used as meaning "corrupt, defiled, sinful." The "flesh" in the Scriptures is often used to denote the sinful propensities and passions of our nature, as those propensities are supposed to have their seat in the animal nature.

1834 · Albert Barnes, Notes on the Bible: 1 Corinthians 15.22

By Adam; by the act, or by means of Adam; as a consequence of his act. His deed was the procuring cause, or the reason, why all are subjected to temporal death; see Gen 3:19. It does not mean that all people became actually dead when he sinned, for they had not then an existence; but it must mean that the death of all can be traced to him as the procuring cause, and that his act made it certain that all that came into the world would be mortal. The sentence which went forth against him Gen 3:19 went forth against all; affected all; involved all in the certainty of death; as the sentence that was passed on the serpent Gen 3:14 made it certain that all serpents would be "cursed above all cattle," and be prone upon the earth; the sentence that was passed upon the woman Gen 3:16 made it certain that all women would be subjected to the same condition of suffering to which Eve was subjected; and the sentence that was passed on man Gen 3:17 that he should cultivate the ground in sorrow all the days of his life, that it should bring forth thistles and thorns to him Co1 15:18, that he should eat bread in the sweat of his brow Co1 15:19, made it certain that this would be the condition of all people as well as of Adam. It was a blow at the head of the human family, and they were subjected to the same train of evils as he was himself. In like manner they were subjected to death.

1901 · Charles Haddon Spurgeon, Spurgeon's Sermons, Volume 47 (1901) 2722

Our Lord said to Nicodemus, "That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit." And Paul reminded the Ephesian Christians that they "were by nature the children of wrath, even as others." Men are not the children of God by any universal fatherhood—they must come to be so by being begotten again "unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead." This is not with us a matter of nature, but the gift of Grace. "As many as received Him, to them gave He power (the right or privilege) to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on His name." But our Lord Jesus Christ is the Son of God by birth and He is spotless in His Nature. There is no corruption, no bias towards evil, no original sin, no taint of birth—nothing of the kind. He is the second Adam, but He has not participated in the evil of the first Adam.